A few years ago, at the Miami Book Fair, I heard a New Yorker cartoonist talk about the submission process. Once a week he and the other cartoonists would bring in 10 drawings. Though a regular contributor, he was lucky, he said, if a couple were accepted. In the old days, he added, you could take the rejected ones and sell them elsewhere, but the New Yorker had become pretty much the sole home for sophisticated cartooning.
It’s a similar situation now with humorous writing: If your piece is deemed “not right” for “Shouts & Murmurs,” there are not many places you can take it.
Which makes me wonder: Are we all getting more than enough laughs from dog videos?
